Element Markets, a Houston-based producer and marketer of renewable energy, sold the first contract at 88 cents per RIN for one lot of 10,000 advanced biofuel RINs, the firm’s chief executive confirmed in an email.

“Element Markets views the financial contract as a valuable tool to supplement our physical business in RINs,” Chief Executive Officer Angela Schwarz said in an email. “We applaud ICE’s commitment to bring transparency and liquidity to this fast moving market.”

ICE launched three futures contracts for RINs on April 29 in response to increased volatility and surging prices for the credits.

Federal law requires refiners and importers to show the credits as proof of compliance with rules requiring the blending of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel into U.S. gasoline and diesel stocks. If refiners or importers don’t blend enough ethanol, for instance, they must make up the difference by buying ethanol RIN credits.

Ethanol RINs surged from about 5 cents per gallon in October 2012 to more than a dollar per gallon in early March.

The first RIN trade completed today on the ICE will settle in December 2013.

Rival exchange operator CME Group is also launching RIN futures contracts, which will become available for trading starting May 13.